First Truss-Sunak Tory leadership debate: five key takeaways

The rivals did not pull their punches, on the economy or China, as they kicked off a month of debates

After a weekend of rancorous briefings against each other, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak faced each other during an hour-long live TV debate from Stoke-on-Trent. Here are five key takeaways, on a night where Sunak seemed as assured as ever, but Truss did not do anything to significantly harm her chances.

Indeed, one of the few rounds of applause from the audience was when she simply said she was not the slickest performer.